Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs On the morning after a devastating midair collision of an American Airlines plane and an Army helicopter that sent 67 people, not one of whom survived, into the icy waters of the Potomac River, President Trump stood behind the White House lectern and for a brief moment did what presidents do.He called it “a tragedy of terrible proportions.” He said “we grieve for every precious soul that has been taken from us so suddenly.” He took solace along with the nation, he said, that the journey of the 67 souls ended “in the warm embrace of a loving God.”But then, as Navy divers continued their search for bodies in the Potomac, the president transitioned into some of the most extraordinary public statements he has ever made.“We do not know what led to this crash, but we have some very strong opinions and ideas,” Mr. Trump began, his tone moving from solace to irritation. “And I think we’ll probably state those opinions now.”And so he did. For the next 30 minutes, citing no evidence, Mr. Trump blamed diversity efforts at the Federal Aviation Administration for lowering standards for air traffic controllers. He blamed the Obama administration, claiming it had determined that the F.A.A. work force was “too white.”He blamed the Biden administration, too, and its secretary of transportation, Pete Buttigieg.“That guy is a real winner,” Mr. Trump said, sarcastically. “He’s a disaster.”But mostly the president of the United States, who was consulting prepared remarks, blamed diversity. Washington was in mourning, chaplains were at the scene of the crash, but Mr. Trump plowed ahead. His remarks were the latest offensive in the White House war to root out “woke” elements and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives across the federal government.“We must have only the highest standards for those who work in our aviation system,” Mr. Trump said. And then: “We have to have our smartest people. It doesn’t matter what they look like, how they speak, who they are.”The F.A.A. has not identified any of the controllers responsible for monitoring flights around the airport. The Pentagon has not named the three helicopter pilots, or their race. But Mr. Trump, seeming as if he knew something, asserted that the three pilots had failed.“You had a pilot problem from the standpoint of the helicopter,” he said. “I mean, because it was visual. It was a very clear night.” The helicopter, he said, “had the ability to stop. I have helicopters. You can stop a helicopter very quickly. It had the ability to go up or down. It had the ability to turn. And the turn it made was not the correct turn, obviously.”Moments later, Mr. Trump invited Sean Duffy, the new secretary of transportation, and Pete Hegseth, the new defense secretary, to the lectern. Both effusively praised Mr. Trump’s leadership on the collision response. And both made the point that the administration needed “the best and the brightest.”But it was Vice President JD Vance, who was next up, who got to the point — the view that white people had lost out because of diversity hiring.“If you go back to just some of the headlines over the past 10 years, you have many hundreds of people suing the government because they would like to be air traffic controllers, but they were turned away because of the color of their skin,” he said. “That policy ends under Donald Trump’s leadership because safety is the first priority of our aviation industry.”Then came the questions from a White House press corps that had lived through some of Mr. Trump’s most extreme remarks from the first term, like his suggestion that an injection of a disinfectant could battle Covid. But many reporters were nonetheless dumbfounded by what was unfolding.Was Mr. Trump saying that the crash was the result of diversity hiring, Mary Bruce of ABC News asked, and what evidence had he seen to support that claim?“It just could have been,” Mr. Trump said with confidence. “We have a high standard.” He added: “Certainly for an air traffic controller we want the brightest, the smartest, the sharpest. We want somebody that’s psychologically superior. And that’s what we’re going to have.”When asked how he could come to the conclusion that diversity hiring had caused the crash, Mr. Trump had a swift reply.“Because I have common sense,” he said. “OK? And unfortunately a lot of people don’t.”Mr. Trump concluded his remarks by saying that flying was safe in the United States and that he expected such a collision never to happen again. After all, he said, “we are going to have the highest-level people.”But the day was hardly over. Later in the Oval Office, when asked by a reporter if he planned to visit the crash site, Mr. Trump was unequivocal.“I have a plan to visit — not the site,” he said. “You tell me, what’s the site? The water? You want me to go swimming?”
